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Well, we were all "reckless" in obtaining this disease so it's hardly surprising that it's a theme that runs through some lives. For one, I cut out doing hardcore drugs (and no, I was never an addict... just parting with ecstasy, ketamine, etc.... no heroin or meth (ick!) and I guit all of that after diagnosis in '93 -- though I did indulge again slightly for 2 years around '99. Haven't touched any of that crap in 5 years. I also RARELY drink at all. I think the last time I got drunk was in 2.5 years ago though I will have a glass of wine in a restaurant.

I quit smoking when diagnosed for 2 years and then started up again. My doctor said that, while not good for me, drugs and booze were worse. Then again at the time life expectancy was shorter and I saw no reason to be a monk. I also would get bronchitis yearly which sucks in a smoker, so I underwent hypnosis around '00 and quit for 2 years. Then I went though an EXCRUTIATING legal situal for 2 years and smoked again. I've now cut down to about 7 cigarettes/day in the last 2 years and only smoke 3/4 of each cigarette. I met with a cessation coordinator at my monthly long-term survivor support group just last night who is doing PHD research on smoking in HIV populations so I may do something with her in this study.

My smoking is quite minimal at this point so I guess it won't be that big a leap to finally quit, though it will be my 2nd or 3rd time. If I quit can I still enjoy a cigar -- you know you don't inhale. Enjoy the aroma.

Anyway, it's nonsense that smoking causes HIV. Defies logic.

As far as non-smokers being offended by smokers I'm personally more offended by grossly obese people on the street. Why MUST I be subjected to them? And really, which is more unhealthy?

how could you ask such a question? People who smoke subject others to their habit - second hand smoke - which is much more dangerous than someone choosing to kill themselves by becoming grotesquely obese.

This sounds just like what is said about HIV and AIDS. I don't want them in my school, my kids my catch it. I don't want them playing with my kids, they may get cut and my kids may get it. I don't want my child drinking after them they may get it. I don't want them using the toilet as my kids do. This is what I think about second hand smoke. If you don't like the smoke don't go into, bars, bowling alleys, restaurants, don't ride in a car or visit someones home that smokes.

I also am skeptical about just how dangerous second smoke would be to someone just passing by it on the street. Bowling alleys and bars, perhaps...but just casually and briefly happening by a whiff of second hand smoke? I don't know about that. We are already routinely breathing in a lot of environmental toxins during our day to day existence. I question whether the occasional 'passing by on the sidewalk' breaths would pose such a significant danger.

This is what I think about second hand smoke. If you don't like the smoke don't go into, bars, bowling alleys, restaurants, don't ride in a car or visit someones home that smokes.

RapidRod-

As a child, growing up with two adult chain smokers, I didn't have a choice but to breathe second hand smoke. I hated going to school and having my clothes reek of cigarette smoke - and the kids teasing me. Perhaps this is the reason, most, I have never picked up the habit.

And, though to some degree we can all change our environments to fit our likes/dislikes (the above situation excluded), we all share the same air - especially in enclosed unventillated enivonments. I don't give a flying shit (thank you, Courtney Love and School House Rocks for the Expletives), if you choose to breathe polluted air, but you can damn well bet I'm going to assert my rights to not be subjected to something that I choose not to do.

By the way, one of the best things about California is that save a car, home, hotel room, or outside environment, I needn't worry about being subjected to smoke in any of the places you referenced.

how could you ask such a question? People who smoke subject others to their habit - second hand smoke - which is much more dangerous than someone choosing to kill themselves by becoming grotesquely obese.

hrm.

-joseph

WHATEVER... I smoke out my window and rarely smoke around other. Don't lecture to me you little fist fucking pig!

Joseph---I gotta say as a smoker I have no argument with what you are saying. It just irks me though when people assume I am going to be inconsiderate enough to subject them to my 2nd hand smoke. I dont do it in my own home. Just feels like another kind of pre-judgment. I admire you folks who don't smoke. I am just not therer yet. (I used to admire straight guys too--I never did get there despite my most vallant efforts to be what was socially acceptable to my family and others who mattered in my life, sigh!!)

Hunter---Only problem for me is that I was planning on using the gum to quit smoking but I cant bareback and chew gum at the same time. A real dilemma!

Seriously though... I fully understand. I hate ciggie smells on my Alexander McQueen but I digress. I *HATE* chain smokers -- SO WHITE TRASH! I'm more of a glamor smoker! REALLY... reminds me of starlets of yore.

I will quit soon... honestly. At my ripe age of 38 *cough* 41 it's not so fetching any longer. Tastes fab with a Makers Mark Old Fashioned though.

I'm hoping one day that I can get so I just have one cigarette per week... you know, after a really nice dinner. Guess that's where the cigar will come in, plus they're expensive and I'm just a classy sort of gal.

PS: I just smoked a cigarette (out the window!!!) I hate for my apartment to reek of cigarettes!

I started smoking in my late 20's after my last child was born..I have no idea why I just did, back then it was no big deal anyway.

I stopped in 2000 when I turned 54, friends thought after my diagnosis in 2002 the stress would start me back again..it didn't, but in 2003 I started back again...again no excuses, just did.

My husband has never smoked and I have never smoked in front to him, or my kids when they were young and certainly not in front of my grand children.. I don't smoke in the house at all, I go down to one of the sheds when I want to smoke or out in the back porch when the grand kids are in bed.

Chaplinguy I can understand a nonsmoker finding it hard to understand a smoker..but I say everyone to their own...those of us who enjoy a smoke don't run around telling you nonsmokers how disgusting we think you are because you don't smoke..so please don't do it to those of us who do...it's a choice we make..I made mine.

BTW...I think pacif smokers should buy their own anyway...just sayin'..

To all those who are thinking of giving up or have already started I wish you the best and hope you are doing it for YOU and not for those who are nagging you into it.

WASHINGTON - Smokers may be one minority in Congress with even fewer rights than newly demoted Republicans. Now they're losing one of their last, cherished prerogatives ó a smoke break in the ornate Speaker's Lobby just off the House floor.

"The days of smoke-filled rooms in the United States Capitol are over," Pelosi said. "Medical science has unquestionably established the dangerous effects of secondhand smoke, including an increased risk of cancer and respiratory diseases. I am a firm believer that Congress should lead by example."

When I so many stories about people who want to quit who can't I'm so happy I never started. I'm not sure what it is about me that growing up I never succumb to peer pressure. I suspect my resistance to peer pressure has to do being an incredibly introverted person. I grew up in the mountains of NC and cigarettes, skoal and chewing tobacco were everywhere. All the jocks chewed tobacco. Then when I went to college and came out it was the same with alcohol, marijuana and cocaine... all the cool people did it, all the "A" gays did it. I still get pressured by people to drink alcohol: try this wine... you won't even taste the alcohol in this mixed drink... why don't you drink, are you religious or something? Now I find out that these guys at the gym who have awesome physiques are on steroids.

i been smoking since i was 12. love it! but sadly my boyfriend does not and after about a year of my HIV diagnosis i quit. i used nicotine replacement. actually i never stoped. i use the gum at first but found the new cherry flavored Commit lozenge the best! i'm down to a few of the 2mg pieces a day. i know i am still addicted to the nicotine but at this rate i dont care. it's much lower than i would consume if i were smoking.

I'm waiting for the big boom to watch CA fall into the water. I use to live in LA County and we had so much smog that it looked like you were in a bar. Cigarette smoke doesn't hurt my eyes half as much as smog does.

Because a higher percentage of people with HIV smoke doesn't mean smoking causes HIV or HIV causes smoking. It does mean there is some kind of relationship between people who smoke and people who have HIV if the originally quoted statistic is even valid. I'm curious as to the nature of that relationship." Gymrat......................Hey Thanks for the Statistics 101 lesson.. Really I have forgotten everything I learned in that course.!!!If you want my opinion, the relationship is in the risk taking. ( We know smoking is bad for us....but do it cause it feels good....as does barebacking.) I will go further and say if you look at the profile of smokers....there might be some clues there. Maybe. Oh, and Tim, I had to learn to smoke also, when I went into the Peace Corps, because the people in the country where I was used cigarettes as tokens of friendship and comraderie. Giving them....lighting up...etc.

I am not telling anyone here to quit, and certainly not how to do so. But remember. having two cancers is much worse than one. Moreover, there is no question smoking negatively impacts the immune system long before it kills someone off. It's not cocaine and it's not heroin. So we can quit with willpower alone. Other methods might make that easier, like hypnosis. -megasept

Not that anyone is really prosecuting here, but in my defence I'll say that I'm a very apologetic smoker. Anyone at the dinner table (if my friends and I are out at a restaurant that allows smoking), or the next dinner table for that matter, has the power of veto.

I've been smoking for half my life exactly, 17 years. Have tried to quit several times. But, as I wrote in a post recently, I associate cigarettes with drinks (cocktails, if that sounds better) and with writing. Since I don't see myself quitting either of those activities anytime soon, I doubt I'll give up my smoking.

I have cut back, though, from a pack a day to 5 or 6 a day. More out of "vanity" than anything else. Smoking is hell on the facial epidermis.

And echoing Tim's remarks (and other posters' as well) about depression, stress, and self-medicating.

Jay

Logged

Her finely-touched spirit had still its fine issues, though they were not widely visible. Her full nature, like that river of which Cyrus broke the strength, spent itself in channels which had no great name on the earth. But the effect of her being on those around her was incalculably diffusive: for the growing good of the world is partly dependent on unhistoric acts; and that things are not so ill with you and me as they might have been, is half owing to the number who lived faithfully a hidden life, and rest in unvisited tombs.

Some interesting points here. One thing I would like to clear up, though. I didn't find myself living with the bug through reckless behavior.

Back in those days, what is now called barebacking wasn't considered reckless because we didn't know HIV existed. Ah, those were the days. I guess, technically, we could call them my reckless days of youth.

What we really need is some good sex education. Too many of those heterosexuals are still barebacking, judging from all the women i see getting ready to drop another one.

That said, wasn't it President, er, I mean Gov. Arnie of California who used to frequent the cigar bars of L.A.?

I look at my Virginia Slims Menthol Lights as my anti-alzheimers treatment. I know they're kind of girlie, but so am I. Anyway, here is something I'm going to "cut and paste" without permission. Very thought provoking.

"Does nicotine have beneficial effects in the treatment of certain diseases?Birtwistle J, Hall K. University of Southampton, Department of Psychiatry, Royal South Hants Hospital.

Although tobacco smoking has long been associated with diseases of the lungs and cardiovascular system, numerous studies have demonstrated a negative association between tobacco smoking and ulcerative colitis, and the neurodegenerative diseases, Alzheimer's disease (AD) and Parkinson's disease (PD). The evidence suggests that nicotine--the main pharmacologically active ingredient of tobacco--appears to be responsible for this effect. Pure nicotine has no known carcinogenic properties and can be administered in numerous ways including transdermal patches and tablets. As a therapeutic agent, its association with tobacco can be likened to morphine and opium smoking. There is ample clinical evidence to suggest that nicotine could be beneficial in the treatment of some patients with diseases. Pharmacologically, nicotine acts on cholinergic (nicotinic-specific) receptors which are depleted in AD and PD. Nicotinic receptors also interact closely with several neurotransmitters including dopamine, which is implicated in both PD and Gilles de la Tourettes's syndrome. There is no doubt that tobacco smoking can be harmful and no-one should be encouraged to smoke. However, although nicotine has many harmful side-effects, it may have therapeutic value or at the very least be a useful tool for future drug development."

Like Joseph, I had two smoking parents, and as a kid always hated it. I've never had a cigarette in my life. When I was younger and pressured to take a "social toke" on a joint to "fit in", I wouldn't even do that. So began my long history of someone who didn't quite fit in. But I digress. Interestingly though, just about all my gay friends smoke. I'm talking 90% of them. I've learned to cope with that socially because I had to. But I will have to admit, whether it be a trick for the night, a boyfriend, or a lover; smoking is a deal breaker for me. Not gonna happen. Not in my bed, my house, or my car. That's just me. Just sayin'........

Smoking as a deal-breaker: my mind jumped immediately to Sex and the City, season three. Carrie meets Aidan, for whom her smoking is a deal-breaker. She quits for him. Over the next season, her smoking behind his back becomes an allegory for her cheating with Mr. Big.

Sorry folks, I have a problem besides smoking: I don't see things as real unless I can relate them to a novel, a story, a poem, a song, a TV show... Very hard to quit that habit; been trying for years.

And, oh dear yes, the humiliation of a cute guy not wanting to kiss me because of my smoker's breath. (I brushed my teeth; like I said, very apolegetic smoker.)

Logged

Her finely-touched spirit had still its fine issues, though they were not widely visible. Her full nature, like that river of which Cyrus broke the strength, spent itself in channels which had no great name on the earth. But the effect of her being on those around her was incalculably diffusive: for the growing good of the world is partly dependent on unhistoric acts; and that things are not so ill with you and me as they might have been, is half owing to the number who lived faithfully a hidden life, and rest in unvisited tombs.

Well Jay, when I say a deal breaker, I would never be so rude as to tell someone directly that's why I'm not interested. I would probably just excuse myself, saunter back to my fave bartender, and down another Vodka and diet Seven-UP cocktail. Which, I might add, I have heard is a deal breaker for other people. Although I'm not sure if they are talking about my penchant for good Vodka with a diet mixer, or the fact of how many I tend to have at one sitting. Again I digress, not thread hijacking here....back to smoking....

I hate cigarrette smoke! Yes, I smoked many cigs at an early age and thank the Gods often that I quit early on. I moved from Phillip Morris country, Virginia, to smoke-free country, California, and love most of their anti-smoking efforts. Actually, I could not care less what one does to ones own body, but only as long as I don't have to breath it or smell it. I thought the "anti-smoking Nazis" out here had probably gone too far when they started banning smoking on all of the beaches, but then I realized I'd overlooked one aspect of smoking that drives me crazy - one of my biggest pet-peeves... YOUR FREAKING NASTY CIGARRETTE BUTTS!!!!! For those of you who treat the world as your ash tray you deserve all of the ill contempt that society can dish out to you! You're littering - plain and simple! Eat the damn things, stick them up your ass, but DON'T toss them about like they're invisible.

That said, and I can come down from my soap-box now, I can understand why anyone who's stressed out, HIV+ or otherwise, would smoke to calm themselves. We all have our "medications", if you will. More power to you if that's your choice.

Oh, and to folks who attempt to use the tax revenue of cigs to justify their "good" to our economy - REALLY!?!? That "good" is easily whiped out each year by the cost to our healthcare system - please think before you make such statements!

Oh, and to folks who attempt to use the tax revenue of cigs to justify their "good" to our economy - REALLY!?!? That "good" is easily whiped out each year by the cost to our healthcare system - please think before you make such statements!